NUS University Town, Thursday, September 12, 2013 – Singapore Management University (SMU) scored a crushing 67–33 win over Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) in the Singapore University Games (SUniG) Basketball Championship. Leading 40–9 by the end of the first half, SMU eventually finished the game with a 34-point winning margin.

This is SMU’s second win, after beating Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) 49–47 and going down to Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) 42–66. SUTD’s futility continues, they lost to SIT 26–102 in an earlier match.

The first quarter was a trying affair for SUTD, as they were in complete disarray right from the get go. Players were not waiting for the ball to come to them, while their primary ball-handler was pressured intensely by the SMU defence. This caused SUTD to take extremely bad shots that were out of the flow of offence, leading to a lot of missed baskets. SMU were able to capitalise on the fast break, leading to multiple easy baskets. They ended the quarter on a 16–0 run, taking a 25–3 lead.

The second quarter was more of the same story, as SUTD started to take even wilder shots. It was evident that the team had chemistry issues, as the players were more contented with dribbling out the clock, rather than passing to an open man. Meanwhile, even though SMU had an average day on the offensive end, they did more than enough to widen the lead between them and SUTD.

Coming out of the half-time break, SUTD were more settled, the team talk having had some effect. They managed to increase their scoring output, thanks to a lax SMU defence, coupled with improved ball movement that generated open looks for their players. However, they still were unable to reduce the large lead that SMU was holding on to. In the end, SMU ran out 67–33 winners and will now face SIM in the final round robin match of the SUniG season.

Said SMU player-coach Mark Lim (#13): “Even though we are happy we secured the win, we did not play to our expectations. Our players were not in the right frame of mind for today’s game. We have a lot more to work on in terms of game preparation to improve ourselves.”

“Today’s game was much better than our previous game with SIT, where we went in with only five players.” said Nishard Ghouse, captain of SUTD. “Having substitutes for this match really helped us, especially with the high level of defensive intensity put up by SMU.”

Commenting on their team’s play today, Nishard added: “I do feel that there is still room for improvement for our offense and we need to work on it. But all in all, I am satisfied with the scoreline and the defense we’ve put up as a team today against SMU.”